The importance of process

- A product roadmap, no matter how good it may appear to be,has no value if key product stakeholdersaren't aligned around it.I've seen it happen over and over again.The CEO and the product leader at a startupare preparing for a company presentation,and together, they create an excellent roadmapfor the development of the productbased on a brilliant strategyfor leapfrogging the competition.It correctly prioritizes strategic featureswhile delaying some others that some executiveshave been asking for.They present the roadmap at a company-wide meeting,and it seems like everyone is aligned.

But a few weeks into the execution of the plan,things start to go wrong.Development falls behind schedule,and when the VP of engineering is asked about the delays,he says that the plan wasn't realistic in the first place."I could've told you on day one we couldn't"hit those release days," he says, "but you didn't ask me."Then, when they finally release the strategic features,sales are lower than expected.When asked about missing the numbers,the VP of sales says it doesn'thave the features his customers have been asking for,so there's no way he can hit the numbers.

He also says that he knew about this ahead of timeand could've told them, but wasn't asked.So what's the problem here?Why isn't this new roadmap working?Well, the problem, of course,is that the CEO and the product leaderdidn't take the time to get the team alignedaround their roadmap in advance.It didn't matter that the roadmap was excellentand the strategy behind it brilliant.It was never going to work.So the reason you need to get key stakeholders alignedaround your product roadmap is that product developmentdoesn't happen in a vacuum.

The purpose of product developmentis to serve the business,to support the company's overall strategy,usually by winning customer adoption,loyalty, and ultimately, revenue.And that almost always requiresthat all of the different functional groups in your companywork together, including sales, marketing,customer support, and so on.If any of them aren't on board and doing their part,it's going to present a major barrierto the success of the product planachieving its intended objectives.There are many ways to get alignment around a plan,but alignment is easier to achievewhen you include your stakeholders early in the process,when you take the time to askfor their feedback and address it,and when you keep all of your stakeholders updatedas the plan takes shape and evolves into its final form.

When people are involved in making something,they feel ownership, and they'll promote and defend it.Sometimes, all of the meetings requiredto build alignment can seem redundant and laborious,but I promise you that it's worth it.If you find yourself wondering whether you really needto spend so much time on building alignment,think of it this way.The stakeholder alignment itself is actually the goal,and the resulting product roadmap documentis only there as a reminder of what you are aligned around.

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Released

1/18/2018

A roadmap is a simple but powerful tool for product development. A strong product roadmap supports your business objectives and product strategy. It can help you make decisions and answer critical questions. For example, how do you decide which projects to pursue, and which to defer until later? How can you know which projects will be important a few months from now, when the market is changing so quickly? And how do you get all the diverse groups in your organization aligned behind one particular plan?

This course shows how to build a product roadmap for your business—and gain critical stakeholder buy-in. See examples of what roadmaps might look like, and spend time learning the tools and techniques necessary to map the projects for your specific organization. Instructors Teg Grenager and Eldad Persky help you create strong, dynamic roadmaps that will ensure your team is working on the right projects at the right time.